Those Loveable Lovebirds

If lovebirds are your choice, you'll find that breeding and keeping them is easy, fun and rewarding. Youngsters can be tamed and handfed babies make wonderful, loveable pets. They can sometimes learn a few words, but are not known to be talkers. Lovebirds are natives of Africa and some of the offshore islands. There are eight species of lovebirds: Peachfaced, Masked, Fischer's, Red-faced, Black-cheeked, Madagascar, Abyssinian and Swindern's. We will be discussing the Peach-faced species which makes up the majority of our breeding stock. First on the list is the type and color of lovebird you want. Some of the common color mutations of the Peach-faced species are: blue and green pieds, creams, lutinos, American cinnamon, mauve and olive. There are many variations of blues and greens which all have names, but it is very confusing to recognize each one when you begin. I'm still not sure of all of them. The best way to decide which birds you want is to just choose birds you like. The only way to really learn about them is to be able to observe them and their habits. Getting a true pair is next and that is not always easy. We have read about and been told so many ways to visually sex lovebirds but we gave up after too many wrong guesses. The only sure way we know is by DNA sexing or surgical sexing. This can be expensive, so there aren't many sexed lovebirds available for sale. Usually a reputable breeder can be very helpful in choosing a pair. The following items are some of the basics from our breeding program. These have been very successful for us and we are happy to pass them on and hope they work for you. We like to set our birds up with one pair to a cage. We put them together as youngsters and let them mature together. Our breeding cages are 2' x 3' x 3' and have PVC legs that are easy to wash and make the cage light weight to handle. We use 1/2 x 1 16 gauge wire that is put together with ] clips. The cage is a boot style which has a safety front with a door to access food and water and another door in the upper front positioned just a little to the right. This is for catching birds when necessary. The PVC legs are cut in five foot lengths and attached with washers and screws. They are positioned on the sides of the cage front and back so the bottom is about 36 from the floor, making the cage stand about six feet high. Nest boxes are hung with wire hooks on the outside left front. The cage wire is cut just enough for the birds to enter through the 2-1/2 hole in the box. There are various styles and sizes for lovebird boxes. We use a regular reverse that is 7 wide x 8-1/2 high x 9 long. We put our boxes on the cages when we put the birds in. Most lovebirds like to sleep in a box. This is also the reason we do not remove boxes except for cleaning. Our birds take a rest from breeding even if the box is left up, and seem to do so two or three times a year. I'm sure there are those who will disagree but this has worked for us and the birds seem to be doing fine. At breeding time, we give the birds palm leaves which they will shred. Hens will tuck pieces in their mmp feathers and carry them to the nest where they weave them into a nest. Some birds get quite elaborate with small tunnels. Clutches usually consist of four to six eggs, but some young hens only lay three and we have some older hens that will lay as many as eight. Eggs are laid one every other day and hens will begin to sit seriously after the second egg is laid. Hens do all the incubating and usually only come out to eat or drink. Males will also feed the hen while she sits.